# Starship development and progress \[previous title: Will Musk's starship reach orbit this year?\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [July 7, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583 "2022-07-07T22:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 39
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/761 "2024-03-14T14:07:05Z")
Interesting–according to the announcer, the Raptor burn is _not_ a deorbit burn; it’s actually the opposite (raises perigee slightly). But it’s a lofted trajectory overall and it’s coming down no matter what. ETA: Ok, apparently they’re skipping the extra burn. Was always a stretch goal for them. Will have to do that next time. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/762 "2024-03-14T14:11:41Z")
Are those tiles flying off? Not good if so. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/763 "2024-03-14T14:12:11Z")
Oh damn, look at that plasma! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/764 "2024-03-14T14:16:08Z")
Any monitor ships in the splashdown zone? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/765 "2024-03-14T14:20:15Z")
Not sure what they have in the area, but they must have some monitoring. Reentry looked pretty rough–attitude control wasn’t great, though it was kinda hard to tell due to the camera being mounted on the (moving) flap. Needs some work, either way. I’m not expecting a successful reentry at this point. Still, some of those views were awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/766 "2024-03-14T14:24:40Z")
When’s the “it didn’t make it” cutoff time? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/767 "2024-03-14T14:25:30Z")
T+1:04 is the expected splashdown time. So still a few minutes before we find out more. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/768 "2024-03-14T14:27:49Z")
Flight director (I think) says that they lost Starlink and TDRSS links (another data link) at the same time. That likely indicates that the ship was lost since otherwise they probably wouldn’t go out at the same time. But still a few minutes to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/769 "2024-03-14T14:29:26Z")
Disappointing, I’d hoped it would make it to splashdown even in damaged condition, but at least a few more bugs have been ironed out for next try. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/770 "2024-03-14T14:31:31Z")
It still survived a couple of minutes into reentry, which isn’t too bad for a first attempt. And those shots were gorgeous! Looks like it’s time to call it. Still a great test. And meets the conditions of the OP. Will probably go back to sleep in a few minutes since I only slept a few hours previously… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/771 "2024-03-14T14:35:01Z")
All right; they’ve called it officially and the stream’s over. Looking forward to seeing the analysis later! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/772 "2024-03-14T15:01:24Z")
I just woke up and drinking my morning tea. If anyone sees a _good_ hilite reel, can they post it here please? Thx. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/773 "2024-03-14T15:33:04Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > can we finally put this thread out of its misery? Or at least edit the title? The next question is: will starship _make it back from_ orbit this year. They have obviously put a lot of engineering development into the ascent phase and made a great deal of progress. We don’t know how much attention has been given to reentry so far? One hopes it’s at least rather more than “oh, we’ll just glue a few tiles on the outside; she’ll be right, mate”… 🙂 By the way, I haven’t seen a complete video so far (was on the road running an errand); did they say anything about the planned test of fuel transfer? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/774 "2024-03-14T19:26:32Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > did they say anything about the planned test of fuel transfer? NASA seems satisfied (the transfer test was a ~$50M contract with NASA): > But we don’t know yet if it was a “success”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/775 "2024-03-14T19:28:03Z")
Pretty good advertisement for Starlink: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/agxBm12.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/agxBm12) ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/776 "2024-03-14T19:34:28Z")
Is there posted video of Starship reentering, or is SpaceX just fucking with us? ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/777 "2024-03-14T20:17:44Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > If anyone sees a _good_ hilite reel, can they post it here please? Thx. Here’s Scott Manley’s: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8htMpR7mnaM/maxresdefault.jpg "SpaceX Orbit Largest Spacecraft In History also SpaceX Destroy Largest Spacecraft In History.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMpR7mnaM) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/778 "2024-03-14T20:18:09Z")
That’s a frame from the live video feed–they were streaming all of that in real-time (via Starlink). But yeah, here’s a trimmed video: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JX1LTw48ymQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Wow! Watch SpaceX Starship re-enter Earth's atmosphere in these incredible views") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX1LTw48ymQ&t=190) ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/779 "2024-03-14T20:50:12Z")
Thanks for the videos! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/780 "2024-03-14T20:56:14Z")
From one of the SpaceX graphics: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/mgYin3P.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/mgYin3P) That appears to be a bowl of petunias in the lower-right. Starship serves the role of sperm whale. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583.md?page=40)